‘Med hjärtat brant i lagor, Och brostet fullt av saknav, Full av angest in I marden, Och I sjalen fusen nalar’ (Sorg) / ‘With a heart burning in flames, And a chest full of sorrow, Full of anguish into the grave, A thousand needles into the soul’ (Sorrow)

Hailing from Lidköping, Illvilja (Malice) return with their second album, Döden (Death), building on the conceptual themes first explored on their debut full-length, Livet (Life).  Teasing out how death’s shadows shroud our lives, it examines both the ruptures and the liberations that it provokes.  Their emotionally charged neo-crust provides an evocative counterpoint to these bleakly poetic reflections on mortality.

They key to the album’s intensity lies in the band’s deftly handled pacing dynamics, their ability to relentlessly build tension, intuitively balancing vigorous velocity with passages of haunting delicacy.  Defiantly soaring melodies, galloping riffage, and blast beat eruptions are interwoven into a darkly evocative tapestry.  The blackened vocals are raw yet impassioned and lock-in with a rhythmic synchronicity that is insidiously contagious.

The mournful acoustic intro to Sorg (Sorrow) lures you inexorably into Illvilja’s embrace as they sweep from the surging intensity of De Som Forsvänn (Those Who Strayed) to the swaggering optimism of Ärr (Scar).  Döden sees hope and horror as two sides of the same coin, swirling and intertwining in a mesmerising dance for domination.